Telephone counselling has been around for more than forty years and remains a widely accepted communication support, both in the primary care and the outpa-tient departments of our hospitals. In many cases, this form of communication might be the only way in which the patient will have contact with the health ser-vices, primarily the nurse. In this study, the authors have chosen the word com-munication support as a generic name for the various technology tools, which are already present or in the future, might be an important link between the patient and the nurse. The aim of this study was to examine which communication sup-port that is available and patients´ perceptions of those and the patients´ percep-tions. Our patients can sometimes be affected by their illness, which means that their perception might be influenced and the advices or the prescriptions given by telephone will not be correctly perceived. This may pose a risk to the patient and an uncertainty affecting the nurse who gave the advice or the prescription. The literature review was inspired by Forsberg & Wengström seven steps. Database search was completed in CINAHL and PubMed. The ten scientific articles which form the bases of this study show different communication technology solutions for the cancer patients in different stages of their illness and treatment. Patients´ experiences of the different communication support tools were positive in terms of feeling safe and secure. The authors conclude that further research on the dif-ferent communication support systems will be needed before implementing them to Swedish conditions.

en_US

dc.description.abstract

Telephone counselling has been around for more than forty years and remains a widely accepted communication support, both in the primary care and the outpa-tient departments of our hospitals. In many cases, this form of communication might be the only way in which the patient will have contact with the health ser-vices, primarily the nurse. In this study, the authors have chosen the word com-munication support as a generic name for the various technology tools, which are already present or in the future, might be an important link between the patient and the nurse. The aim of this study was to examine which communication sup-port that is available and patients´ perceptions of those and the patients´ percep-tions. Our patients can sometimes be affected by their illness, which means that their perception might be influenced and the advices or the prescriptions given by telephone will not be correctly perceived. This may pose a risk to the patient and an uncertainty affecting the nurse who gave the advice or the prescription. The literature review was inspired by Forsberg & Wengström seven steps. Database search was completed in CINAHL and PubMed. The ten scientific articles which form the bases of this study show different communication technology solutions for the cancer patients in different stages of their illness and treatment. Patients´ experiences of the different communication support tools were positive in terms of feeling safe and secure. The authors conclude that further research on the dif-ferent communication support systems will be needed before implementing them to Swedish conditions.